1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electrical connectors, and more particularly to electrical connectors with improved grounding structure.
2. Description of Related Art
Electrical connectors are widely used in various peripherals for electrically connecting with each other. With a miniature development of the electrical device, the electrical connector is tended to be designed with a miniature structure for reducing occupied area. Usually, electrical connectors are stacked with each other for obtaining the purpose. Such electrical connector usually includes an insulative housing, a plurality of contacts retained in the insulative housing and an outer shield enclosing the insulative housing. The insulative housing comprises two or more mating sections stacked with each other along an up to down direction for mating with a corresponding plug. A partition plate extends forwardly from the insulative housing and is located between two mating sections. The electrical connector also includes an inner shield enclosing the partition plate. The inner shield includes two pairs of spring arms extending into two mating sections respectively.
The outer shield is stamped from a unitary one-piece metal sheet to have a generally rectangular configuration with four peripheral walls including a pair of top wall and bottom wall, and a pair of side walls. Each of the top wall, bottom wall and side walls has a pair of spring arms extending into the mating sections. Usually, the corresponding plug includes an insulative housing with a number of mating contacts retained thereon, and a metal shield enclosing the insulative housing. The metal shield defines a plurality of openings locking with the spring arms of the inner shield, the upper and lower walls of the outer shield. In addition, the spring arms of the side walls abut against the metal shield of the plug for grounding.
However, the outer shield is made of ordinary, low cost material, such as iron, for reducing the cost of the electrical connector usually. But the ordinary, low cost material has badly mechanical property that could not ensure desirably flexibility of the spring arms, and would adversely affect the contact between the spring arms and the plug after longtime mating cycles. The grounding performance tends to be worse at the same time. If the outer shield is made of material with excellent mechanical property, the cost of the electrical connector will be increased.
Hence, an electrical connector with improved grounding performance and low cost is needed to solve the problem above.